The present invention generally relates to the field of the storage and retrieval of electronic data, and particularly to a paradigm for inter-networked storage.
The efficient and persistent storage and retrieval of electronic data is one of the most important considerations in the modern economy. With the advent of E-commerce and applications utilized by enterprises to perform most every function of the business, a vast quantity of data is generated that must be stored in a persistent manner to ensure data integrity. Further, this data must be available to the enterprise to enable the efficient operation of the enterprise. Losses of data and data availability may cripple an enterprise, resulting in great economic and social loss.
With the growth of E-commerce enterprises and the increasing reliance on electronic data in everyday life, there is an ever-increasing need for being able to affiliate larger pools of storage with the Internet than are currently practiced. The attributes of scalability, such as an ability to grow any desired attribute, such as capacity, bandwidth, liability, availability of service, quality of service, or any combination of those things, as rapidly as desired by a consumer, with a cost that is, preferably, linear than the attribute of interest is not a characteristic of current storage solutions today. The industry has found what may be a limiting factor to the efficient growth of an enterprise, such as E-Commerce companies and the like, is that enterprises are encountering superlinear growth cost functions associated with the scaling characteristics. Thus, there is a need to grow storage with an acceptable cost function, or as low a cost function as possible, with any degree of rapidity and/or scale desired.
Moreover, there are a variety of digital transmission services that are beginning to be deployed now, such as digital TV, digital audio, digital transmission of streaming data on the Internet, and the like, that may utilize isochronous traffic. Isochronous is a term used to refer to real time digital data moving through a system where every item of data is clocked and occurs at a precise clock edge, so that temporal coherence is achieved. This is a large transition from the old asynchronous computer view of time. Thus, there is a need to synchronize and deploy cost-effective isochronous transports from satellite, terrestrial, fiber optic, wireless, terrestrial wireless and so on. Additionally, the infrastructure required for enabling the various providers to behave coherently and interactively so that human beings may access content, push channels, pause, resume, fast forward, fast reverse, and so on and so forth, may require an infrastructure change from the current Internet.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an inter-networked storage paradigm.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to an inter-networked storage paradigm. Preferably, to accomplish governable costs of ownership and other cost constraints, the total cost of ownership should remain consistent. Therefore, the architecture, according to storage growth, should lend itself to automated management, such as automated management, algorithms and methodologies, and the like. The present invention provides an architecture that brings together disparate technical elements to achieve inter-networked storage. Further, the present invention has the desirable characteristics, scale, may be realized according to a minimized cost function with the ability to control and govern the liability, availability, bandwidth, capacity and quality of storage as one pleases subject to some kind of management software or framework.
In a first aspect of the present invention, an apparatus includes a controller, a hybrid switching element suitable for interpreting network data received from a networking device and storage data received from a storage device. A protocol accelerator is also included suitable for utilizing a data storage addressing scheme. Additionally, an error control component is provided suitable for compensating for loss of at least one of a network element and a data storage element. The error control component is communicatively coupled to the hybrid switching element, protocol accelerator and controller so as to enable error control coding including network and data storage.
In a second aspect of the present invention, a storage and network processor includes a storage controller and a network input interface suitable for coupling to a network to provide a network connection. A storage device input/output interface is also provided for coupling to a storage device. A hybrid switching element is included for interpreting network data received from a networking device and storage data received from a storage device. A protocol accelerator suitable for utilizing a data storage addressing scheme is included. An error control component suitable for compensating for loss of at least one of a network element and a data storage element is also provided. The error control component is communicatively coupled to the hybrid switching element, protocol accelerator and storage controller so as to enable error control coding suitable for describing a data storage element and a network element accessible to the SAN processor.
In a third aspect of the present invention, a method of acquiring data includes receiving a request for storage data, the storage data available on a first storage device. The storage data on the first storage device is determined to be unavailable by a hybrid switching element, the unavailability of the storage data caused by at least one of a network failure and a storage device failure. A path is delineated for obtaining the storage data, wherein determining a communication pathway and redundant data address delineates the path. The data is acquired based on the delineated path.
In a fourth aspect of the present invention, a SAN processor suitable for providing inter-network storage disposed between a storage device and a network includes means for controlling storage and means for interfacing with a network, the network interfacing means suitable for coupling to a network to provide a network connection. Means for interfacing with a storage device, the storage device interfacing means suitable for coupling to a storage device is also provided. Further, means for hybrid switching, the hybrid switching means suitable for interpreting network data received from a networking device and storage data received from a storage device is also included. Means for accelerating a protocol, the protocol accelerator means is suitable for utilizing a data storage addressing scheme. Means for controlling errors, the error control means is suitable for compensating for loss of at least one of a network element and a data storage element. The error control means is communicatively coupled to the hybrid switching means, protocol accelerator means and storage controller means so as to enable error control coding including at least two of communication links, switches, data storage and processors accessible to the SAN processor.
In a fifth aspect of the present invention, an inter-networked storage system, includes a network suitable for transmitting electronic data, a first node communicatively coupled to the network and a second node communicatively coupled to the network. The first node and the second node include a storage device suitable for storing electronic data and a storage/network processor coupled to the storage device. The storage/network processor includes a hybrid switching element suitable for interpreting network data received from a networking device and storage data received from a storage device. The storage/network processor also includes an addressing component suitable for addressing data in a format suitable for storage across the network and an error control component suitable for compensating for loss of at least one of a network element and a data storage element. Error control coding is provided suitable for describing network error data and data storage error data to enable the error control components to provide inter-networked storage over the first node and the second node.
It is to be understood that both the forgoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.